Quaternary ammonium chloride-containing products (also known as “quats”) have been used in hard surface disinfection for many years. As a broad-spectrum disinfectant, they have acceptable efficacy against some organisms (e.g. Staphylococcus aureus), but often fall short in efficacy against many spore-forming fungi. Two particularly difficult to kill organisms for these types of disinfectants are Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus brasiliensis. Thus, other harsher disinfectant or sporicidal products, such as phenols, bleach (sodium hypochlorite) and peracetic acid are often used when fungal efficacy is required.
For use in aseptic environments (e.g. Clean Room Class 100), the disinfectant chemistries often need to be sterile. The most commonly accepted form of terminal sterilization for this application is gamma-irradiation.
Various compounds are not desired or acceptable either from a regulatory standpoint in some countries, such as C8-C9 aliphatic quaternary ammonium chloride, and or they degrade upon exposure to gamma-irradiation, such as aromatic quaternary ammonium chloride compounds. Quat products also traditionally have poor fungicidal efficacy. Various chelating agents such as Tetrasodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), a chelating agent commonly found in many disinfectant products, are not acceptable in many European countries.
To achieve acceptable fungicidal activity, many phenolic or oxidizing agent-containing products are used. However, these products have draw-backs of their own including strong odor and mucous membrane irritation, material incompatibility issues, and requirements for overly cumbersome personal protective equipment (PPE) during use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,454,984 relates to cleaning composition containing an aqueous solution, a quaternary ammonium compound component, a nonionic surfactant component, and a glycol ether solvent that functions at a low level of the quaternary ammonium compound component while allegedly maintaining at least one of the following desirable properties, an acceptable cleaning efficacy, a low level irritation or toxicity profile, and/or a broad spectrum antimicrobial activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,681 relates to concentrated aqueous liquid disinfectant compositions that exhibit a blooming effect when diluted in a larger volume of water. The concentrate compositions include non-phenolic constituents to provide a disinfecting effect, and are non pine-oil containing. Working strength dilutions of the concentrated aqueous liquid disinfectant compositions are allegedly effective against gram positive type pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus as well as gram negative type pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella choleraesuis. 
U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,922 relates to antibacterial compositions having alleged antibacterial effectiveness. The antibacterial compositions contain an antibacterial agent, an alkamine oxide, a nonionic and/or cationic cosurfactant, an optional polymeric thickener, and water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,927,237 relates to two-solvent antimicrobial compositions and methods employing these two solvent compositions. The two solvent compositions typically contain a second solvent that is not or is only sparingly soluble in a diluting solvent. The two-solvent composition can form a clear single-phase solution. The two-solvent antimicrobial compositions allegedly reduce the population of microbes on various surfaces such as facilities, containers, or equipment found in food, beverage, or pharmaceutical industries at temperatures between about −70° C. to about 100° C.
WO Publication 97/34990 relates to a cleaner concentrate composition which can be diluted to form a viscous use solution, the cleaner composition comprising: an ammonium compound and/or an amphoteric compound and an anionic surfactant, wherein the composition is free of amine oxide.